ARSENE WENGER has revealed that Jack Wilshere could not kick the ball properly for a long time after his ankle injury. He can now.

And the Arsenal manager will be looking for an equally impressive performance from the England midfielder tomorrow against Borussia Dortmund as he showed at the Emirates to get his team back in the game against Manchester City.

Wilshere scored one – a rare right-foot finish – and made the second that Alexis Sanchez volleyed home wonderfully.

It was a game Wenger dared not lose given the maulings last season and the visit to Dortmund in the Champions League opener tomorrow.

And he is glad that Wilshere is adding goals to his game as well as a more robust aspect to match his skill - and also proving Paul Scholes wrong after the former Manchester United star again criticised him saying he "has fallen so far behind team-mate Aaron Ramsey".

"You cannot explain his performance by the criticism of Paul Scholes," said Wenger. "But you have to respond to critics in a public job. You go on the pitch and show your talent.

"I am very happy with Jack's finishing and he looked dangerous in the first half because he has found his pace and power.

"For a long time he did not kick the ball well because of his ankle. I feel his shot with his ankle is now clean again.

"He stays on his feet which is the big difference. When he was not as confident, he would push on his ankle and go down on his body. He is more solid now."

Wilshere himself revealed that a pep talk towards the end of the campaign has revitalised the whole team.

"Towards the end of last season when it looked like we wouldn't get into the top four, we said, 'listen, this isn't good enough'. Since the last seven or eight games of last season until now, we've had a fantastic attitude.

When he was not as confident, he would push on his ankle and go down on his body. He is more solid now

Arsene Wenger

"Everyone in training is buying into the defensive side of the game and we want to improve that, winning the ball back high up. Once we do that, our quality is going to change.

"We're not just letting teams play when we lose the ball, we want to win it back. We said at half-time if we keep going they won't live with us."

Arsenal travel to Dortmund without Mathieu Debuchy - who is expected to be out for two months with a sprained ankle - and Calum Chambers set to deputise at right-back.

Debuchy's departure unsettled Arsenal in the final minutes and Wenger will not want a repeat of that in Dortmund, where they won last season thanks to a Ramsey goal.

"We got a blow at 2-2 and we were closer to losing the game," said Wenger. "We just switched off. Was it psychological from Debuchy injury?

"We did not look the same team. Not because of Chambers but we looked a bit lost."

City have their own tricky assignment in Germany this week with a trip to Bayern Munich, where they came from 2-0 down to win 3-2 last season.

Hopefully manager Manuel Pellegrini will have got over his perceived injustices at the hands of referee Mark Clattenburg and realised that his players can regularly deliver when against the wall, which they did after taking the lead through Sergio Aguero, then equalising with a header from Martin Demichelis.

They did that here and skipper Vincent Kompany said: "For us to come back when we were a bit unlucky shows we're still up for the challenge. Now we have an away game against one of the hardest teams in the world to play right now. But we should take confidence from the last game we played in Munich."